With nearly half the department's officers off the job, the City Council last week approved a contract with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office to provide nighttime policing.

But the extra help won't come cheap.

Sheriff Scott Miller said details are being ironed out to have deputies in his department's King City unit handle the extra work.

Because the contract will be a "special services request," the deputies will be paid wages "more like an overtime rate," Miller said.

In cases in which the department has an ongoing contract to provide policing for a city the rate would be much lower, he said.

Hegwood said he expects to need the sheriff's service for "at least three and no more than six months."

Part of Hegwood's mission as interim chief was to bring order to the gutted and scandalized department.

Asked how that effort was going, he said, "When you're so short-handed, it's kind of difficult."

Several residents who preferred not to be named on Thursday said they are pleased by the interim chief's actions and said they'd welcome seeing deputies patrol their streets.

"The sheriff's department is going to be fair," one said.

"I think we're making progress," Hegwood said. "More importantly, my initial goal was to provide stability. I think we've done that and we've got a chain of command in place."

Although Hegwood linked the two employee leaves with the alleged criminal conspiracy, Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Hulsey said her office is filing no new charges in connection with the towing kickback scheme "at this time."

Officers familiar with the cases say the FBI still has an open investigation into thousands of dollars that went missing after a bank robbery arrest.

As Baldiviez and several former officers were arraigned in criminal court this week, he and Bruce Miller are awaiting a judge's order on whether a federal lawsuit against them will proceed.

King City residents Elizabeth and Jose Luis Madriz's lawsuit alleges they were mistreated during a SWAT raid targeting one of their sons.

The middle-aged couple claim King City officers arrested them for no reason and used too much force when trying to serve a warrant on their 19-year-old son Julio Madriz for marijuana sales. One officers dug his knees into Jose Luis Madriz, injuring his already bad back, the complaint says. The couple were detained for more than six hours.

Julio Madriz later admitted to a charge of possessing marijuana for sale and was given 40 days in jail, court records show.

Named in the suit are Baldiviez, Miller, King City officer Jesus Yanez and Sgt. Mark Baker, as well as Miller and 20 sheriff's officers of varying ranks.

Attorneys for Monterey County in early June filed an 18-page motion to dismiss the Madriz suit, saying the couple "failed to cooperate in the search of their residence. As a result, tear gas was fired into their house to force them to exit the building."

The county argued the claim about an officer digging his knees into Jose Luis Madriz's bad back was not a "specific injury" committed by a particular defendant, and said there was no conspiracy to deprive the Madrizes of their rights.

In a response filed Monday, the Madrizes' attorneys said the county had submitted "a paraphrased version" of the Madrizes' complaint for its "own purposes."

The county shot back the same day, saying the couple had initially filed a complaint "with a Rube Goldberg-esque statement of facts" that was dismissed because it lacked "a short plain statement of the claim."

Officers Yanez and Baker were also mentioned in a police brutality lawsuit that was settled in December 2012 for about $100,000, according to City Attorney Roy Hanley.

In a videotape described in that lawsuit's complaint, officer Jorge Luna is allegedly seen beating a drunk and belligerent 15-year-old boy who suffered a broken ankle, while Yanez is filling out paperwork but doing nothing to stop the battery. Baker and other officers are allegedly high-fiving each other after the boy is subdued.

Luna left the force on May 15 for undisclosed reasons. Yanez left King City for the Soledad Police Department, where he was recently dismissed.

Meanwhile, summonses have been served during the past two weeks to some of the arrested King City officers as part of yet another federal lawsuit.

The class action was filed in March on behalf of residents who were victims of the alleged towing scheme.

Tow company owner Brian Miller has since received automatic protection from that proceeding because he filed for Chapter 13 on July 7. His debts were listed as between $500,001 and $1 million.